Copyright © 2006 by The Voice of Prophecy

P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

“Leave No Man Behind"

It had to be one of the most humiliating, and painful, moments in American military history.

Since 1992, the United States armed services had been involved with a U.N. relief operation in the impoverished country of Somalia, where famine and civil war brought the threat of starvation to untold masses. The Americans called their mission OPERATION RESTORE HOPE, and by the fall of 1993 the efforts saved thousands of Somali lives. Americans should have been proud of what their country accomplished. For most, though, OPERATION RESTORE HOPE was not foremost in their minds.

All that changed overnight. On October 3, 1993, American elite troops got involved in a 17-hour firefight in the midst of the capital, Mogadishu, with troops of a Somali warlord. When the shooting stopped, and the smoke cleared, over thirty American soldiers, four Marines, and eight Air Force personnel had been killed. Eighty-four had been wounded. Up until that day, it had been the bloodiest single day for American forces in combat since Viet Nam.

Suddenly, the operation in Somalia was front page news. Suddenly, just about everyone in America knew about it. Our pain at these losses was very real.

All that might have faded from our memories, however, were it not for the 2001 movie, Blackhawk Down, staring Josh Hartnett, which attempted to tell the story of what happened to those brave troops in Somalia.

There was one especially memorable scene in the movie. American troops have this code of honor, the idea that they will “Leave no man behind,” that is, if one of their own soldiers is still on the battlefield, they will return to rescue him. Indeed, even if a soldier left behind were dead, others will risk their lives to retrieve the body.

There’s an important spiritual message here. Blackhawk Down ended with a couple of soldiers getting ready to go back into the city in an attempt to rescue fallen comrades. These soldiers promised to return and get their people, no matter what.

Well, in the same way, only more so, Jesus Christ has made the same promise to His people: that one day He will come back and rescue them. Jesus has promised not to leave His people here on earth, in this battlefield of sin, evil, suffering and death. Again and again in His Word He has given us His word: He will return.

And that’s one of the greatest promises in the Bible--the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. It’s Jesus’ promise to all His followers that, though we live in this world of pain and death, He’s going to return and get us out of here--and not one of us is going to be left behind.

Of course, as soon as I use the phrase “left behind” in the context of Christ’s Second Coming, many will think of the Left Behind novels by Tim Lahaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. With all due respect, these stories are fiction, fantasy with a so-called “Christian” twist. I don’t want this week to spend time on fiction, on novels; instead I want to concentrate heavily on what the Word of God tells us about the Second Coming of Jesus, because this is a very important topic, one that will impact the life of every human being, whether they believe in Jesus or not. We don’t have time for fiction. We need the truth of God as revealed in His Holy Word.

So let’s dig in together and see what we find in the Bible about the Second Coming of Jesus.

First, let me say this. If I didn’t believe that Jesus was coming back, then I—even as a Christian minister of the Gospel—would have to renounce my faith in the God revealed in the Bible.

Why? Because my Bible, especially the New Testament, talks again and again about the Second Coming of Jesus. It promises, over and over, that Jesus will come back. One scholar estimated that one out of every 30 verses in the New Testament refers to Jesus’ return. And there are many verses in the Old Testament that talk about the Second Coming, too. In other words, if the Second Coming weren’t true; if it were not to happen, then the whole Christian faith would be a farce.

Strong words, I know. But what other logical conclusion can one draw, given what the Bible says about the Second Coming?

Let’s just look at a few of the hundreds of texts regarding this event.

Jesus, right before His death, was talking with His disciples, and listen to what He said to them: "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:1-3 NKJV).

Jesus said I will come again and receive you unto myself. How much plainer can a promise be?

After Jesus was taken up to heaven in the sight of His followers, two angels appeared to them and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11 NKJV).

This same Jesus, who has gone to heaven, will “so come” back as you just saw Him leave. Again, another promise of Jesus’ return.

Here’s Jesus again: “For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:27 NKJV).

Jesus Himself here is very explicit not only about the fact that He is coming back, but He is even describing what it will look like.

Listen to John in the book of Revelation: “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him” (Revelation 1:7 NKJV).

The apostle Paul certainly believed that Jesus was coming back: “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1Thessalonians 5:23 NKJV).

And again, “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?” (1Thessalonians 2:19 NKJV).

Here is Paul again: “We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

In another place, where there was some agitation and concern about the Coming of Jesus, Paul wrote: “Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 NKJV).

Just one more: “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God” (1 Corinthians 4:15-16 NKJV).

Friends, these are just a small smattering of the verses in the Bible that talk about the Second Coming of Jesus. We are promised in the Word that Jesus will return, promised by a God who “cannot lie” (Titus 1:2). Time and again the Second Coming is referred to in the context of God’s promise to us.

I don’t know about you, friends, but I have been promised things by people who have not delivered. Even worse, and I’m ashamed to say it, I have at times made promises that I have not kept, no matter how sincerely I made the promise at the time.

A friend once told me how he had gone away on a trip but had promised his son that he would be back for the boy’s birthday. He promised. He had it all worked out that his meetings would end on a certain day, and that he’d catch his connecting flights and would be home in time for his son’s birthday party in the evening. Every time he called the house his son would get on the phone ask if Daddy would be back in time for his birthday party. “I promise you son, I will be there” he said each time his son asked.

Well, sure enough, what happened? The flight he was on was late, and he missed the connection. There wasn’t another flight until much later. He tried frantically but, much to his and his son’s consternation, he missed the boy’s birthday and party. Even though he had promised to be there.

Friend, when we talk about the promise of the Second Coming, we are not talking about the my promises, or your promises, or the promise of American soldiers to their fallen comrades on the battlefield to “leave no man behind.” We’re talking, instead, about God’s promises. I surely can trust God’s promises more than I can anyone else’s even my own. If we can’t trust God’s promises, then whose can we trust?

And you see, the promise of the Second Coming is God saying to us that He knows life here is hard. He knows that we suffer with sickness, with fear, with pain, and with death. And the promise of the Second Coming is, if nothing else, God’s promise to come and end these things once and for ever.

Yes, the Scripture is unmistakable—Jesus is coming back! It will be the most earth-shattering event in all history. And it’s also the most hopeful as well. It offers each of us a hope of something so grand and wonderful we can’t even imagine. And that hope can be yours too, a hope that you can claim for yourself right now through accepting Jesus as your personal Savior. Why wait? Jesus is coming soon. This is Lonnie Melashenko reminding you that it’s always true, friend, God loves you.